Dallas Mavericks Blog

Jason Kidd plans to reach out to ‘good friend’ LeBron James

Jason Kidd was featured in a picture in the Miami Herald on Monday, and it appeared he was trying to pat LeBron James on the chest and James appeared to be giving Kidd the wave-off hand.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Kidd and James were on the Olympic team together in 2008 and have been good friends ever since. James was the first Heat player that Kidd embraced after the Mavericks closed out Game 6 to win the NBA championship.

After the Finals, he wants James to know that his day is coming and that times like this often serve as a catalyst for greater things down the road.

“I will reach out to him,” Kidd said. “He’s a good friend of mine. I want him to have success and be successful. But I think right now, it’s just being patient and all the great ones had to be patient. They had to take their bumps or lumps, however you want to look at it. But at the end of the day, they all found a way to win a championship. And I think at the end of his career, he’ll have a couple championships.”

Kidd, meanwhile, said he has no intentions of riding off into the sunset with a championship ring. He has one year on his contract and intends to honor that next season, whenever it might start after a presumed lockout begins on July 1.

Also, Peja Stojakovic and Brian Cardinal also said they intend to be playing in the NBA somewhere next season. Both are free agents and have ruled out retirement as an option. Both said they would like to be back in Dallas.